By Troy Graham
Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — On any given day, about 600 Philadelphia police officers - almost a tenth of the force - are unavailable for duty, largely because of a state-mandated disability system that allows injured officers to remain out of work indefinitely with full pay, top police officials say.
Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey has called this situation “ridiculous” and unacceptable, and the cash-strapped city says the system costs millions in lost wages.
Officials at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 counter that the disability system has given injured officers a say in their own care and no longer pushes them back to work before they are healed.
The debate over the disability system - known as the “heart and lung” act - is likely to come to a head during the continuing contract negotiations between the city and the FOP.
The city has proposed a number of changes, including capping the length of benefits at 365 days, which the FOP opposes.
The system, which went into effect in Philadelphia in 2005, permits injured officers to see doctors selected by their union. Officers do not have to go back to work until the doctor authorizes them to return, and the act puts no limit on how long officers can stay off duty.
Officers who want to dispute the doctor’s finding can appeal to a three-member board selected jointly by the city and the union.
While listed as “injured on duty,” officers collect their full pay without paying federal income tax, resulting in about a 20 percent raise.
At a recent meeting of city leaders, Ramsey said some officers were abusing the system and changes were needed.
“We’ve got to do something,” he said. “We have too many people injured on duty.”
FOP officials argue that under the old, city-run disability system, known as “Regulation 32,” injured officers could be treated only by city-designated doctors, who sometimes pushed them back to work prematurely.
“Any system lends itself to abuse. The city abused the Reg. 32 system, and the officers didn’t have a voice,” said Terry Reid, who handles injury and disability issues for the FOP. “I had officers going back to work with broken limbs, wet casts.”
The debate over heart and lung is not new. The system was instituted after a long legal battle between the city and the FOP, and the two sides have been arguing over it since.
But this is the first year that heart and lung has been the subject of substantive labor negotiations. The city and the FOP are locked in binding arbitration to replace a contract that expired June 30.
The FOP is scheduled to give three days of testimony to the arbitrators next month, some of which will be devoted to heart and lung.
In a proposal to the FOP at the end of 2008, the city asked for significant changes “to control excessive . . . costs” associated with heart and lung.
In addition to a cap on benefits, the city proposed that all injured officers be treated by city-appointed doctors, and that a “fast-track procedure for returning officers to light duty” be instituted.
“It sounds like a Reg. 32 system that they call heart and lung,” Reid said. “I don’t agree with any of their proposals.”
She said the FOP and the city had been working for four years to tweak the system.
“Now, in this contract, they want everything and we get nothing,” she said.
Police officials say heart and lung costs the department millions of dollars and tens of thousands of lost hours.
In 2005, the average monthly number of officers listed on “no-duty status” was 87, according to police statistics. In 2008, that number had risen to 241, costing the department $13.6 million in salary.
“From a health and safety standpoint, I can’t explain it,” said Barry Scott, the city’s deputy director of finance and risk management. “The numbers of injuries haven’t gone up, and the nature of the injuries hasn’t changed.”
In 2004, for example, 1,204 officers reported injuries. In 2008, the number was 1,304, police said.
“It’s really the length of the disability that has increased,” said Carol Madden, the Police Department’s occupational safety administrator.
Reid noted that Philadelphia is a tough city to police, and that officers were bound to be injured doing their duty.
“We had seven homicides recently on a relatively quiet weekend,” she said. “I don’t think they want people who can’t work answering those calls.”
At the end of July, 292 officers were listed as “injured on duty,” according to police statistics. The department routinely has an additional 300 officers unavailable for full duty.
On July 1, for example, 187 officers were on limited or restricted duty for various medical reasons, 30 on restricted duty because of Internal Affairs investigations, and 107 “detailed out” to other agencies.
Heart and lung - formally known as the state Enforcement Officer Disability Benefits Act - became law in 1935 but initially didn’t apply to Philadelphia, which had its own system.
State lawmakers put Philadelphia police under the system in 1995, but the city was slow to comply with the law. The FOP went to court to finally bring heart and lung to the city.
“I don’t know why Philly can’t get on board,” Reid said.
Ramsey told city leaders that he faced a similar situation when he was police chief in Washington until the district put limits on disability benefits.
“We had so many people come back to work, it was unbelievable,” he said. “It was a miracle.”
Copyright 2009 Philadelphia Inquirer